Poll: Is Space Dandy sexist?

[Burnouts3s3]

I think it's hard to argue otherwise that the new series, Space Dandy, portrays a majority of its women as sex objects and rarely do they get any dimension other than the roles they are given. Most of the time, they are portrayed as having very defined features and wear attractive outfits, even Scarlet manages to have a very shapely figure. The only exception I can think of is Adélie, a young girl Dandy helps and even then Dandy says to her that she has to grow up to be a well-defined woman for her to join Dandy's ship.

So, what is your take on this?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'd say that if you think Space Dandy is sexist you're conflating the author's perception of women with the protagonist's perception of women. Dandy is a womanizing sex fiend, but he's also a total loser in a lot of ways because of that very trait, and that's the central joke of the whole anime. The reason most of the women in the show are treated as sex objects is because Dandy treats them as sex objects, which is the primary feature of his personality. The women are also one dimensional because half the female characters in the show work at a hooter's-type restaurant called "boobies" and interact with Dandy as a customer, knowing full well that he's there for their "assets" rather than their personality.

So no, Space Dandy is not a sexist anime. It has sexist overtones, but plays them as a joke to show that treating women that nothing but sex objects is pathetic. If the whole anime was played straight then that would be a different matter, but it isn't.

 

[Burnouts3s3]

I'd say that if you think Space Dandy is sexist you're conflating the author's perception of women with the protagonist's perception of women. Dandy is a womanizing sex fiend, but he's also a total loser in a lot of ways because of that very trait, and that's the central joke of the whole anime. The reason most of the women in the show are treated as sex objects is because Dandy treats them as sex objects, which is the primary feature of his personality. The women are also one dimensional because half the female characters in the show work at a hooter's-type restaurant called "boobies" and interact with Dandy as a customer, knowing full well that he's there for their "assets" rather than their personality.

So no, Space Dandy is not a sexist anime. It has sexist overtones, but plays them as a joke to show that treating women that nothing but sex objects is pathetic. If the whole anime was played straight then that would be a different matter, but it isn't.

Even then, Dandy is our audience avatar. Couldn't perceiving women through his perspective, which many audience members relate to still create a false image of women?

Isn't it hipster sexism or ironic sexism?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD0Faha2gow

 

[ninjaRiv]

Any sexism is there on purpose; it's all a parody of anime. Big boobs bouncing around, characters with no personality, etc is all part of the joke. Saying that, it does have a few deeper moments.

I don't know if you watch the end of the episodes, where they preview the next one, but there was a "Next time! The fan service episode" joke.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

This looks like the brand of sexism where you can still use all the visual aspects of it, to pull in the viewers, but if you are doing it ironically, then suddenly it is fine.

Perhaps they are well intentioned in solely being a parody and I am being unfair, but they are obviously still using the 'sex sells' method in their visual design of the programme and in their promotional pictures.

 

[Flaery]

Even then, Dandy is our audience avatar. Couldn't perceiving women through his perspective, which many audience members relate to still create a false image of women?

That's more on the fault of the people who adopt that false image than any fault of the actual show's. Dandy is a womanizer, that's part of his character. It's not a particularly positive character trait but not all traits need to be positive.

 

[Maphysto]

It's anime, so yeah, probably.

Let me just clarify my position here; I take a very dim view towards anime in general. There are a handful of series that I adore, such as Cowboy Bebop, but on the whole, I'm of the opinion that it's mostly schlock. I haven't watched Space Dandy, but I was excited for it when I heard the Cowboy Bebop team was working on it. Then I watched the trailer and found out that it was also the Soul Eater team, and looked like about the same level of cliched drivel.

But to get to my point, anime in general is plagued by a lot of problems, sexism being pretty near the top of the list. Even out of the anime series' I've enjoyed, gratuitous fan-service and over-sexualization of female characters has been a problem (see: Ghost in the Shell, Rebuild of Evangelion). You could argue that they're playing it for laughs in Space Dandy, but given how rife sexism and misogyny are within the medium and Japanese society at large, that's a flimsy justification. Funny sexism is still sexism.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Space Dandy is far too over the top and ridiculous to have anything as serious or mature as sexism applied to it. It's the anime equivalent of a 12 year old boy, and I'd personally feel a bit silly calling a 12 year old sexist.

 

[ItouKaiji]

Is it sexist? No,not really. It's just poorly written, unfunny, cliche, boring and a complete waste of Bone's resources. I'm pretty happy it's going to be split cour so I get a break from it after the first 13 episodes and I probably won't pick up the rest of the series.

 

[Norithics]

I don't know what we're required to somehow agree with a protagonist, just relate to them. And frankly, I think showing the house-of-cards psychology behind someone who defines themselves by their sexual conquests helps us understand and deal with people who suffer from that unfortunate perception in real life in a more holistic fashion. I think it's more destructive to view someone like that as a caricature than to try to understand how they probably got to be that way. Exploring deeply flawed protagonists is sometimes painful, but it teaches us a lot about people who aren't like us, for better or worse.

 

[The Funslinger]

I'd say that if you think Space Dandy is sexist you're conflating the author's perception of women with the protagonist's perception of women. Dandy is a womanizing sex fiend, but he's also a total loser in a lot of ways because of that very trait, and that's the central joke of the whole anime. The reason most of the women in the show are treated as sex objects is because Dandy treats them as sex objects, which is the primary feature of his personality. The women are also one dimensional because half the female characters in the show work at a hooter's-type restaurant called "boobies" and interact with Dandy as a customer, knowing full well that he's there for their "assets" rather than their personality.

So no, Space Dandy is not a sexist anime. It has sexist overtones, but plays them as a joke to show that treating women that nothing but sex objects is pathetic. If the whole anime was played straight then that would be a different matter, but it isn't.

Even then, Dandy is our audience avatar. Couldn't perceiving women through his perspective, which many audience members relate to still create a false image of women?

Isn't it hipster sexism or ironic sexism?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD0Faha2gow

I'd say that that as a concept is completely pointless anyway. It would imply that writing a sexist character with sexist perception is just as wrong as actually being sexist or misogynistic or whatever. Which is completely ridiculous.

Stephen King wrote Beverly Marsh's father and husband in It as deranged, misogynistic wife beaters with very clear explanations of their twisted worldview. Does that make him misogynistic? Hell no.

In this case, Dandy and his attitude is a joke. It's played in such a way that you couldn't possibly agree with it. It's laughable.

So no, Space Dandy isn't sexist. it's just hilarious.

Hell, surely the idea of parodying a deeply sexist person as a dope is more progressive than it is anything else.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I think it's also worth mentioning that women aren't in it that much... Most of the time is spent showing how useless the male protagonists are. Also, women either spurn these guys or only talk to them because it's their job. The show does need a strong female character, though.

Besides that, it's just a fantastic show. This is coming from a guy who barely watches anime. It's a silly kind of fun. Something you don't get a lot of amongst the broody, gritty stuff that just pours out of TV now.

 

[EyeReaper]

This looks like the brand of sexism where you can still use all the visual aspects of it, to pull in the viewers, but if you are doing it ironically, then suddenly it is fine.

Perhaps they are well intentioned in solely being a parody and I am being unfair, but they are obviously still using the 'sex sells' method in their visual design of the programme and in their promotional pictures.

I do believe that's called the "Kill la Kill" method, or at least it should be.

Anyways, for the topic at hand, I haven't seen much of Space Dandy, maybe a bit of the first episode, but not enough to voice an opinion on the whole series, so I'll make a more broad claim on fanservice-laden shows in general. I don't necessarily find them sexist, persay, even if their portrayal of women/men is less than positive. I like to believe a work is only sexist if there is actually ill-will behind it, and for the most part, I don't see fanservice in most anime as malicious, but instead more of wanting to give their target audience something to catch their attention, now, I don't find it good for shows rely on eye-candy like that, but I wouldn't call it too terrible either, as long as there is something else there besides just fanservice. In other words, sexy doesn't equal sexist.

 

[balladbird]

and rarely do they get any dimension other than the roles they are given.

How are the recurring male characters any different in that regard, here, though? I'm all for scrutinizing female roles in media, especially in anime, but for this series it seems a little weird. All the characters we've seen so far operate in one dimension. Hell, Scarlet is probably the most complex character we've seen so far, since at least she has her work persona and her off-work persona. We certainly know more about her than we do the entirety of the Gogol empire.

Most of the time, they are portrayed as having very defined features and wear attractive outfits, even Scarlet manages to have a very shapely figure. The only exception I can think of is Adélie, a young girl Dandy helps and even then Dandy says to her that she has to grow up to be a well-defined woman for her to join Dandy's ship.

A scene which serves to establish that Dandy is a sex obsessed pervert... a fact the show has been so intent on hiding that his first spoken lines of dialogue were a speech on the virtues of asses over breasts?

A flawed character doesn't make for a flawed message. No one who's old enough to be watching Space Dandy is naive enough to think that Dandy is any sort of person to emulate. He's a tongue-in-cheek parody of the uber-manly space hero of anime series yore.


I don't know, it feels weird to find myself on this side of the female portrayal debate, since it's an issue very near to my heart, but it seems like such a stretch to accuse this particular series of having any sort of nefarious agenda. Doing so definitely implies that we're putting more thought into it than any of the creators did.

This is an episodic comedy series that lampoons the best and worst tropes of the anime medium for humor. Some people love it, some people hate it, but no one is thinking too hard on it.

 

[MXRom]

This sounds more like a case of someone wanting to find something wrong and finding it only because they want to find it.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

It's a (childish) parody / comedy, so no.

Couldn't watch the show anymore after two episodes though. It's visual diarrhea in my opinion. Lots of flashy colors / animations and main characters screaming "Boobies!!!" a hundred times per episode doesn't make for good comedy, it didn't even make me smile.

 

[Weaver]

That's the joke. Dandy is a total pervert and it's funny. His sole motivation in life is going to space hooters. It's not even present in every episode. For example, the Gentooian episode, the pants vs. shirt episode, and the plant episode didn't even have any sexualized characters in them. Unless floating amoeba style plants get you off that is.

I really think anyone who believes this show has some kind of subversive agenda really needs to relax.

To be totally honest, I'm getting really tired of being treated like a malicious internet hitler rapist because I like media with sexual elements to it from time to time.

 

[Tanis]

You've over thinking it.

Space Dandy is basically Johnny Bravo IN SPACE (SPACe, SPAce, SPace, Space, space)!

Filled with all the same moronic humor.

 

[hermes]

I'd say that if you think Space Dandy is sexist you're conflating the author's perception of women with the protagonist's perception of women. Dandy is a womanizing sex fiend, but he's also a total loser in a lot of ways because of that very trait, and that's the central joke of the whole anime. The reason most of the women in the show are treated as sex objects is because Dandy treats them as sex objects, which is the primary feature of his personality. The women are also one dimensional because half the female characters in the show work at a hooter's-type restaurant called "boobies" and interact with Dandy as a customer, knowing full well that he's there for their "assets" rather than their personality.

So no, Space Dandy is not a sexist anime. It has sexist overtones, but plays them as a joke to show that treating women that nothing but sex objects is pathetic. If the whole anime was played straight then that would be a different matter, but it isn't.

Even then, Dandy is our audience avatar. Couldn't perceiving women through his perspective, which many audience members relate to still create a false image of women?

Isn't it hipster sexism or ironic sexism?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD0Faha2gow

No, he is not the avatar, he is the protagonist.

If he were the avatar, he would be constantly asking questions to create chances for exposition, and he would allow the audience to project on him by being intentionally undefined. He is a defined character in a defined universe, and being a womanizer is a part of him, not of the audience or the author.

Space Dandy is basically Johnny Bravo IN SPACE (SPACe, SPAce, SPace, Space, space)!

That is actually a pretty good comparison, with the difference that he is mostly competent at his work...

 

[Lotet]

This sounds more like a case of someone wanting to find something wrong and finding it only because they want to find it.

Naw, the first episode gets him to visit a titty bar with a bunch of bimbos with no female character except a dumb waitress who thought his job was "asteroid". A lot of people would have the "sexist?" thought cross their mind for a second. I chose to ignore that thought in this case as I don't take the show seriously anyway.